Discovery BoxGenesis 29:32 
Context29:32 So Leah became pregnant 1 and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, 2 for she said, “The Lord has looked with pity on my oppressed condition. 3 Surely my husband will love me now.”
Genesis 30:14
Context30:14 At the time 4 of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants 5 in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
Genesis 42:22
Context42:22 Reuben said to them, “Didn’t I say to you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ but you wouldn’t listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!” 6
Genesis 42:37
Context42:37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may 7 put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care 8 and I will bring him back to you.”
Genesis 48:5
Context48:5 “Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. 9 Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are.
1 tn Or “Leah conceived” (also in vv. 33, 34, 35).
2 sn The name Reuben (רְאוּבֵן, rÿ’uven) means “look, a son.”
3 tn Heb “looked on my affliction.”
sn Leah’s explanation of the name Reuben reflects a popular etymology, not an exact one. The name means literally “look, a son.” Playing on the Hebrew verb “look,” she observes that the
4 tn Heb “during the days.”
5 sn Mandrake plants were popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac in the culture of the time.
6 tn Heb “and also his blood, look, it is required.” God requires compensation, as it were, from those who shed innocent blood (see Gen 9:6). In other words, God exacts punishment for the crime of murder.
7 tn The nuance of the imperfect verbal form is permissive here.
8 tn Heb “my hand.”
9 sn They will be mine. Jacob is here adopting his two grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim as his sons, and so they will have equal share with the other brothers. They will be in the place of Joseph and Levi (who will become a priestly tribe) in the settlement of the land. See I. Mendelsohn, “A Ugaritic Parallel to the Adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh,” IEJ (1959): 180-83.
